


Black and Blue

by SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Battle, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance, BlackPaladin!Lance, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), I Ship It, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Leadership, M/M, No pun intended, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post Season 2, Sassy Keith (Voltron), Songs, Space Battles, Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Texan Keith (Voltron), Voltron, after season 2, black lion - Freeform, black paladin lance, blue lion - Freeform, klance, mature - Freeform, missing shiro, red lion - Freeform, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:38:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9919127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro/pseuds/SupremeMasterOverlordKhurro
Summary: Shiro is missing and they need someone to pilot the Black lion until -and if- they can find him. Shiro had been trying to groom Keith for the job of being a leader, but that's not what Black has in mind, and it's the lions who pick the pilots after all. When Keith tries to get Black to let him in, Black refuses. But the lion does let Lance in.So how is Lance, the self-proclaimed 7th wheel, going to lead Voltron into that final battle for the universe when he doesn't think he has what it takes?*Takes place right after season 2 ends**Chapters may be short, but quality over quantity?**Also will have mature scene, major character death, hardcore Klance, all that good stuff. **And I'm gonna be using 'her/she' for Pidge because if I use 'they', I'll just confuse myself. I'm bad enough with all that pronoun stuff as it is*





	1. Who You Really Are

**Author's Note:**

> Seeing as I have enough stories going on, I should not be starting this. I read the theory on tumblr about how Lance could have a chance at piloting the Black Lion and it sparked this.  
> Please review, I love reviews.  
> Also, check out my other stories. Kamikazi is my other Voltron multi-chapter story and I think it’s pretty cool. 
> 
>  
> 
> I do not own Voltron. I am not worthy of owning such a wonderful show. 
> 
> Also, all the chapters in this story will be based off a song. It could be from a movie or from the radio, (mostly country, sorry, I’m a loser and I embrace it) but each song will tie into the current events in the chapter. 
> 
> This song is “Who You Really Are” from Balto 2: Wolf Quest  
> I’m too lazy to look up who sings it, but in the movie it’s little mouse guy and I love him.

Who You Really Are

About a week in Earth’s time had come and gone, and still, there was no sign of Shiro. They had decided to give him some time, maybe they would find him. But they had searched almost non-stop since then to no avail. There was no sign of their leader and even though no one wanted to admit it, they knew that they had to move on if they were to finish this. Zarkon may have been defeated, but Haggar wasn’t and there were already rumors coming in that some “Prince Lotor” was about to take charge of the empire. Pidge had already hacked those files. 

“We need to find someone to pilot the black lion.” Allura broke the silence at breakfast.  
“Shiro pilots the black lion.” Hunk protested. “We’re not just giving up on him, are we?”  
“No, of course not. But if this Prince Lotor really is a threat, then we need to be able to form Voltron. And we can’t do that without someone piloting the black lion.” Allura insisted.  
“Shiro kept saying he wanted me to lead Voltron.” Keith said, but he didn’t sound too confident in that.  
“Well thats a stupid idea, you charge into things too quickly.” Lance snorted.  
“And what, you think you’d make a better leader?” Keith glared at him.  
“Better than you, obviously.” 

“Don’t start arguing, we need to stick together.” Allura stopped it before it could really start. “And while Shiro may have said that, he really doesn’t have a choice. The lion has to chose who it wants to pilot it. After breakfast, we’ll all go down to the hangers. If it won’t let any of us in, then we need to search in other places for a new pilot. Even if it’s temporary.”  
Salv opened his mouth, but shut it when everyone else glared at him. No one had the patience for the paranoid genius today. 

Breakfast was finished in silence. Everyone was too nervous to really eat much. Technically, the only one who even seemed to have much of an appetite these past few days was Hunk, who ate when he was nervous. And happy. And sad. Hunk just really liked food and cooking was his favorite thing, especially when other people enjoyed his cooking as well. So he had cooked a lot this past week, trying to make everyone feel a little bit better. The fact that he couldn’t read what was in each package didn’t affect him, though it had once made everyone sick to their stomachs when he accidentally used something was supposed to be soap and not a spice. That had not been a fun night for the paladins. 

Everyone had been coping differently. Keith was constantly training, more than usual. Coran had put up a limit on the machines, just to make sure he didn’t overwork himself. If they weren’t looking for Shiro and Keith wasn’t passed out in his room, he was more often than not on the training deck. Sometimes he would try to get the others to train with him, but they would turn him down once they realized how intensely he trains. He had knocked them all to the ground, multiple times. Both in hand to hand combat -which normally lead to the other paladins gasping for breath once it got knocked out of them-, and with his bayard, Keith was hard to beat. But he was impulsive, and to people like Lance, who tended to play dirty in hand-to-hand, that was a golden ticket to victory. 

Lance had been dealing with losing Shiro mostly on his own. When he was with the group, he tried to be himself. Loud, obnoxious, distracting. He wanted to try to get their minds off Shiro, so they wouldn’t do what he does and expect the worst. Even if that means he has to make a fool of himself to do it. Technically, he’s always making a fool of himself at home. Thats what happens when you have big families and live in a multi-generational home. On his own however, Lance would go sit in the observatory and stare out over the endless expanse of stars. It never ended and yet was never the exact same. There, in the silence of the observatory, he would let his mind wander. What was his family doing back on Earth? Were they safe? When will he see them again? Where was Shiro? Was he okay? It wasn’t too uncommon for someone to find Lance up there later, fast asleep. 

Pidge had focused her efforts entirely on hacking. Thats how she dealt with this. If she wasn’t trying to find her brother and her dad through the Galra databases they had, then she was trying to find Shiro. The rest of the team would find her in random places around the ship, absorbed in her work. Why she was in that spot, no one knew and no one bothered to question her because Pidge did what Pidge wanted, and that was how it was. 

Arriving in the hangers, everyone expected that the force-field around the black lion would go down for either Keith or Allura. Hell, even Lance expected it would go down for one of them. More Allura than Keith, but no one else seemed to fit the criteria for a leader. Allura approached the lion first, and put her hand on the force-field. There was no reaction. The lion sat there, looking straight forward with his eyes dull. Allura stepped back, and Coran gave it a try, but got the same results. Keith went up, wondering if maybe this time the lion would lower its force field and let him in. Shiro had wanted Keith to lead, surely there was a reason for that. But the lion sat cold and lifeless, giving no sign of even registering Keith was there. After a minute or two, he took a few steps back. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance were left. Pidge and Lance pushed Hunk forward. Hunk looked like he might puke just walking up to the black lion. He was no leader, he knew that. Much to his relief, there was no reaction from the lion. Pidge went next, against to no avail. 

“Lance.” Allura called him up. Lance looked up.. He had been zoning out, watching the mice chase each other across the floor.  
“Hm?”  
“The lion.” She gestured to the lion bluntly.  
“Oh. Right.” Lance strolled over casually, much like he had made his way to Blue that fateful day. “But it won’t open for me either-” He stopped as he touched the forcefield and it wavered, before completely disintegrating. Lance took a step back, and looked back at the others, startled. “It’s probably a delayed reaction from someone else…?” But he didn’t sound very sure. Everyone else seemed just as surprised as he was.  
“It wouldn’t delay that long. It chose you, Lance.” Allura said, and Lance looked back up at the Black Lion. It seemed to be watching him, the way that Blue had that first day. 

“But...but what about Blue? I’m her pilot, I can’t do two.”  
“The blue lion is the most accepting of new pilots. It won’t be hard to find a new one.” Allura thought she was assuring him. But in Lance’s head, she was calling him replaceable. 

Everyone expected that Lance would let this go to his head. They thought he would start messing around, saying things like he knew he would be the leader, trying to boss them around even though they knew he would be joking about it. But instead, Lance paled and looked ready to vomit.  
“It can’t be me though. I’m no leader, I don’t have any of the leadership skills.” He shook his head, taking another step back. “It can’t be me. I’m not- I’m not a leader.”  
“Don’t you have little siblings though?” Pidge pointed out.  
“Yeah, but I’m the middle child. I have older siblings too. The only I’m leading is when we’re playing games or something! And thats different, that’s a bunch of little kids on a beach. That’s not leading people into battle!” Lance put a hand over his stomach. “I think I’m gonna sick. I can’t be a leader.” He shook his head again, eyes clenched shut, before he turned and fled from the room. 

Hunk went to follow him, but Allura stopped them. “Give him some time alone, first.” She said. “It’ll take him a while to really adjust to this new title.” She looked up at the black lion, who’s force field had gone back up. I hope you know what you’re doing…

 

Later that day, Keith was the one who found Lance. He hadn’t been in any of his usual spots, hadn’t come down to eat, and everyone had begun to worry and it had been decided they would look for him. And he had found Lance in some part of the castle he had never been in before, in what appeared to almost be a ‘hall of fame’ so to say. It had pictures of past Altean leaders and past paladins. Lance was sitting on the floor in front of the pictures of the past pilots of the black lion. There were only 5, not including Shiro. Two were Alteans, two were different species, and then there was Zarkon. One thing they had in common was the look of confidence on their faces and the way they all seemed to know exactly what they were doing, even if it was just a picture. 

“You okay?” Keith asked. Lance jumped, having not heard him come in.  
“No.” He answered. His voice was too quiet, too subdued. He had his knees drawn up and his chin was resting on his knees.  
Keith went over and sat a few feet away from him, not wanting to get too close. They barely got along as it was and Keith was sure the last person Lance wanted to see right now was him.  
“Everyone is looking for you.”  
“Hm.”  
“Black must’ve picked you for a reason.” Keith figured he might as well get right to the point. “Besides, didn’t you say you would make a better leader than me?”

“That doesn’t matter. I was messing around. I mean, you are a hot head and you don’t ever think things through and don’t tell anyone what you’re planning, and you have no patience and you aren’t very welcoming-”  
“Can we stop listing my faults?” Keith glared at him.  
“We could, but it makes me feel better to remember how you fail.”  
“You’re an asshole.” Keith grumbled. “But you’re right, I don’t always think things through or tell people what my plans are or any of those things. But you’re pretty verbal about just about everything. What you’re doing, what everyone else is doing, what you’re thinking, you just talk. A lot. More than most people should talk. You have more patience than I do.”  
“No always.”

“Stop arguing with me.” Keith scowled. “What are the traits of the lions?”  
“Blue is welcoming and accepting, Green is inquisitive and curious, Red is stubborn and relies on instincts, Yellow is strong and loyal, and Black is a strong leader.” Lance answered it automatically, as if he spent hours studying just those very words.  
“You’re welcoming. To most people. You’re curious -though you don’t always think about it very well before doing something stupid-, you’re a stubborn ass, and you’re loyal. You fit the personalities of all the lions.”  
“Not Black.”  
“Combine all those qualities and mature up a bit, and you’ll be a leader.” 

“Hm.”  
Keith knew he must have been getting through to him. He had no come back, which his comebacks sucked anyway, but he could tell that he got Lance thinking. Good. “Come back to the others and eat dinner. I think Hunk made space tacos.”  
“How do you make tacos without the meat?”  
“Space meat? Or space goo? I don’t know.” Keith stood up and offered a hand down for Lance. It wasn’t often they got along as good as now, but Keith figured maybe now Lance would just accept it and let Keith help him up. Thankfully, he did take Keith’s hand and pulled himself up, stretching and cracking his back. 

“So uh...how do we get back to the kitchen?” Keith asked. He had no idea where in the castle they were.  
“I dunno. I can’t remember how I got here.” Lance shrugged carelessly and started walking. “I’m sure we’ll end up back there eventually.”  
Keith groaned and facepalmed, but followed after Lance anyway, hoping ad praying they would find the kitchen soon. A slow increase of his time with Lance would involve less yelling, less insults, and less headaches. 


	2. Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Confession by Florida Georgia Line
> 
> This is a pretty short chapter, but I'm using it mainly as kind of a character-building chapter. Lance isn't my character, but his family is never really touched on much so I made my own for him, and gave them little quirks that make Lance the way he is. 
> 
> Eventually there will be Klance, so don't worry. It's coming.

Eventually the two of them had found their way back to the kitchen and ate dinner, and no one mentioned the black lion at all. They could all agree that it would be best to just let Lance adjust to this idea on his own tonight. At least for a few hours. Tomorrow, they would actually give it a shot and see if Lance could pilot the Black Lion well enough for them to form Voltron. After eating, everyone retreated back to their rooms to get some sleep and process the events of today. Lance was definitely having a hard time processing this.

He was not a leader. He had never been a leader, unless he was leading others into trouble or leading someone away from something else. Sure, the pilot was technically the leader at the Garrison, but that was different. While the rest of the crew (which was just Hunk and Pidge back then) had to follow his orders while flying, he was supposed to listen to them to. Which, admittedly, he was never good at doing. At least not in the simulator. The simulator was boring to him. If he had been in a real ship, he would have listened. He wouldn’t have wrecked it so often, because he knew there was actual danger in flying it. But there was no danger in a simulator, besides possibly getting bumped back down to a cargo pilot. 

But at the Garrison, he was far from the best. Keith had been one of the best pilots there. It was only when he dropped out that Lance had been able to move up, and that was certainly not because of his skills at the simulator. It was because he had put in the request so many times, and it was first come first serve. Of course Lance had put in the effort. Every effort he could, he had passed all his classes with flying colors, even if that meant he spent the night staring at the letters floating around on the page until a migraine would force him to call it a night. Dyslexia was a bitch, and even more so when you’re literally studying rocket science. If he could find the text on audio, he would download that and listen to it while following along in the books. He had tried to even fall asleep at night listening to it, but that hadn’t worked. His insomnia wouldn’t have it, so he had to switch back to his regular music at night. Before an exam, even his music wouldn’t help. He would spend all night studying, and take the test knowing the information, but stumbling over some of the longer words or the big jumbles of numbers that flipped around. To say he struggled on some tests because of this would be an understatement. 

And it wasn’t just the garrison that Lance was second best. He was second best at home too. His family had both US citizenship and Cuban. The schools in America were better, so during the school years, they would live in America. The house was small and they all shared rooms, but it worked. During breaks, they would return to Cuba where his family had a bigger room where they weren’t so crowded. And with such a large family, there was always a competition for attention. Lance had 3 older siblings, two of which were twins: Mikey and Marissa. Marissa was a commercial airline pilot; her love of planes and knowledge of all the aerodynamics had inspired Lance’s desire to be a pilot himself. Mikey was in the US Navy. He knew boats like no one else, Lance had -for a brief time- wanted to be a sailor like him. Until of course he realized he didn’t do so great on a boat when storms hit. The one time he went on a fishing trip with Mikey and their uncle, a storm had come through and the waves had tossed the ship around like it weighed nothing. Lance had gotten horribly seasick and decided from then on that unless it was a river or a lake and on a day when there were no storms coming, he would not go on a boat. 

Lance’s uncle was the one who inspired Lance to shoot for the stars, no pun intended. He showed Lance every constellation, helped paint Lance’s wall (each child was able to paint 1 wall in their shared bedrooms) with scenes of outer space, and bought him a nice telescope (that his little brother broke three weeks after he got it). 

Lance was a middle child, which is where his competitiveness really came from. He was never the wonder-son like Mikey nor was he the precious baby. Lance was 5 years younger than Marissa and Mikey, 3 years younger than his other older sister, and 3 years older than his oldest little sibling. He had 3 other little siblings. Lance was 1 of 8, not including the surplus of cousins and nieces and nephews. When he had last been on Earth, Marissa was expecting her first child. Lance was supposed to be a uncle. She was only 22, but early motherhood was common in Lance’s family. His mom had been 20 when she had the twins, and 38 when Isabel was born. When Lance had last left for the Garrison, the youngest one in the house was his 2 year old cousin Harry. 

Rosalyn was the one siblings Lance had never gotten along with. It was a constant battle between the two of them, a constant struggle for attention. Rosalyn was a genus. She was great at math and science, smart enough to even skip a grade. All of Lance’s older siblings were better in school than him. He was the only one who struggled to read and who couldn’t sit still and pay attention. The Garrison was expensive, and Lance would not be able to get a free ride like Rosalyn got to Havard. He wouldn’t have it paid for by the military like Mikey, and he hadn’t saved his money the way Marissa had. Though perhaps Lance should thank Rosalyn for his getting into the Garrison. She had told him he would never make it in, never amount to anything, and get no where in life because he struggled to read and could barely pass any of his classes in school. That accusation had only made Lance determined to get in, and he spent that entire summer before the first year studying until he was able to take the entry test and pass with a 98%, getting him in on scholarship. 

Then this had happened. Now he was out in space, millions and millions of miles away from home with no way to contact them. Mikey was supposed to come home soon, last Lance had heard. It would be during spring break. Another month, and Lance would’ve seen his big brother again. Marissa was due to have her baby around Christmas time. And Ed...Ed was probably one of Lance’s favorite siblings, if only because he was the most innocent. Ed needed a lot of attention and Lance would be lying if he said he hadn’t sometimes gotten jealous of it as a child, but now he knew better. You see, Ed was autistic. He was on a strict schedule, didn’t respond well to change, didn’t talk, and could only be touched if he initiated contact first. And Lance was one of his favorite people. Alexandria was a diva, and used to like to make Lance play dress-up with her, which he had gladly went along with. Anything to make his baby sisters smile. Denver had been obsessed with one day going to Denver, Colorado, only because it had the same name she did. Lance had promised to take her there, and would sing John Denver songs to her at night, because she loved his songs against because he had the same name. And Isabel loved to get dirty. She would chase Lance through the shallows on the beach and let her tackle him, and they would roll in the sand or have a mud fight. 

God, Lance missed them. The thoughts of his siblings made his eyes sting and he was glad he was alone in his room because the last thing he needed right now was for the team to see him crying. He had already made a fool of himself today when he ran from the hangers like that today. And his parents, and grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins. The thoughts of all of them just made it worse and the next thing he knew, he was burying his face in his pillow and bawling in his eyes out. Why him? Why did he have to be so competitive and chase after Keith and follow him into the desert? Why did Blue have to open up for him, and then drag them out into space? And now Shiro went missing and the Black Lion picked Lance. Maybe it wasn’t just missing his family that made him cry so hard tonight, it was probably stress too. A lot of stress at that. Leading people into battle wasn’t like teaching his younger siblings how to surf. This was something so much bigger than all that, and he wasn't ready.

Maybe he should ask for help. But from who? Allura already didn’t think he was good enough for the Black Lion. He could go to Coran, of course, but chances are he would get some strange Altean saying that made no sense whatsoever to someone who didn’t grow up on that planet. And the other three...well, he needed them to have confidence in him, right? So they couldn’t know he was doubting himself so much. He had to prove to them that he could do this, that he could be a leader. 

But he wasn’t sure if he could be a leader.   
All this arguing with himself sucks.

He sniffled and looked up, wiping his eyes and sitting up. He changed into pajamas, simple blue sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt that he was pretty sure might’ve been Hunk’s at one point. He tugged on his jacket, which had been a hand-me-down from Mikey, and made his way out of his room again. This time, he decided to stay in the areas he knew, and therefore found himself in the observatory. Endless space stretched out before him and he sat down, leaning on the wall and looking out at that immense darkness that spread as far as he could see. It helped him think when he came out here. Home was out there somewhere. A little blue and green and white planet floating around in the empty expanses of space, with sandy beaches and happy, oblivious people who didn’t have any clue of what was going out outside their solar system. It made him feel hopelessly small to think about how big space was compared to Earth. 

And this war, this war so so much bigger than all of it. And Lance was about to lead the universe’s most powerful weapon into that war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave some comments and give me some ideas or song suggestions!

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and tell me what you think!


End file.
